As early as the 1840s, in the Long Lake area, small wooden boats were in use just large enough to hold one or two people and their gear. Rowed, rather than paddled, these boats were used for practical purposes, such as hunting and trapping, carrying freight, and general transportation. As more and more sportsmen read and heard about the Adirondacks, the demand grew for guides and their little boats, which eventually became known as guideboats.
"The guide-boat was a fast, light, oared boat pointed at both ends -
a cross between a rowboat and a canoe. It was big enough for the guide
and his customers but light enough for the guide to take on his own over
the many 'carries' between lakes," wrote Kenneth and Helen Durant,
authors of The Adirondack Guide-Boat.
When he and his party could not get from one lake to another by water, the guide hoisted the boat on his shoulders and carried it over the land in between. These paths were known as carries , but were often not paths at all, but miserable, mucky, slippery places that "existed only in the memory of the guide."
"While the guide-boat was made light for the carries, it was also made swift for the pursuit of a swimming deer, and silent for stealthy approach by night. The history of the north woods guide and his boat is intimately linked with fishing and two forms of the hunt, hounding and jacking (or floating), both now illegal," continued the Durants.
Although guideboats were perfectly suited for Adirondack waterways, they could also be "cranky," especially in a high wind. Paying customers wanted a safer, more comfortable means of travel. Over the years builders, who were usually guides themselves, adapted guideboat design to suit their city employers. Some large guideboats, longer than eighteen feet and able to hold more than two people, were called "church" boats, because they were used to row people to church on Sundays. Renowned guideboat builders were the Grants of Boonville, the Parson brothers of Old Forge, as well as Warren Cole and Henry and George Stanton of Long Lake, and Caleb and Edmund Chase of Newcomb.
